Community Baptist Church
December 7 2025

      • Romans 15:12–13HCSB

  • I Heard The Bells On Christmas Day (Waltham)
  • Angels From The Realms Of Glory (Regent Square)

      • Isaiah 11:1–10HCSB

  • Crown Him (Christmas)

      • 1 Corinthians 11:23HCSB

  • O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)

      • Isaiah 53:4–6HCSB

      • Matthew 3:1–11HCSB

  • One Is Coming After Me

    Two weeks ago we looked into Zechariah and Elizabeth. They embody the kind of faithfulness necessary for a time such as this.
    Today, let’s look at their son:
    John the Baptist is the ultimate embodiment of the apocalyptic character of Christian faith—faith that is oriented not to the past but to the future…
    Rutledge, Fleming. Advent: The Once and Future Coming of Jesus Christ (p. 295). (Function). Kindle Edition.

    FAITH ORIENTED TO THE FUTURE

    Four Corners Monument

    One of the most popular sites in Canyon Country is Four Corners Monument. This unique location marks the point at which the borders of four different U.S. states meet: Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico. It’s the only place in the United States where you can be in 4 states at the same time!
    Starting in Utah, the disk reads: “Four states here meet in freedom under God”
    Starting in Colorado, it reads: “Here meet in freedom under God four states”
    Starting in Arizona: “Under God four states here meet in freedom”
    And Starting in New Mexico: “In freedom under God four states here meet

    In John’s words we are able to stand in our present and in God’s future

    Read Matthew 3:1-12
    Standing in the Present
    In Luke’s rendering of John the Baptist’s message he notes:
    Luke 3:15 “Now the people were waiting expectantly, and all of them were debating in their minds whether John might be the Messiah.”
     It’s only in the past 150 years or so that people in any region have been able to define themselves as politically free from outside influece. Since the birth of what scholars call the ‘nation state’ ethnic groups, language groups and so on have understood themselves able to declare independence. In the era of which Matthew and Luke write, independence was impossible. Israel, though for a brief time about 100 years or so prior to the NT era had exercised some measure of political and military ‘freedom’ that era was long over. Rome dominated the entire Middle East - and most of what we would identify as Europe. Luke underlines this in his opening to the Gospel of Luke by carefully identifying the Roman authorities:
    Luke 3:1–2 HCSB
    In the fifteenth year of the reign of Tiberius Caesar, while Pontius Pilate was governor of Judea, Herod was tetrarch of Galilee, his brother Philip tetrarch of the region of Iturea and Trachonitis, and Lysanias tetrarch of Abilene, during the high priesthood of Annas and Caiaphas, God’s word came to John the son of Zechariah in the wilderness.
    There was just enough memory among God’s people of their past that a longing for independence, a longing for a Davidic king was stirring. Eight days after Jesus’ birth His parents took Him to the Temple for circumcision and naming. Two people in the Temple complex underlined this longing:
    Luke 2:25–32 HCSB
    There was a man in Jerusalem whose name was Simeon. This man was righteous and devout, looking forward to Israel’s consolation, and the Holy Spirit was on him. It had been revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would not see death before he saw the Lord’s Messiah. Guided by the Spirit, he entered the temple complex. When the parents brought in the child Jesus to perform for Him what was customary under the law, Simeon took Him up in his arms, praised God, and said: Now, Master, You can dismiss Your slave in peace, as You promised. For my eyes have seen Your salvation. You have prepared it in the presence of all peoples— a light for revelation to the Gentiles and glory to Your people Israel.
    And let’s not forget Anna -
    Luke 2:36–38 HCSB
    There was also a prophetess, Anna, a daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was well along in years, having lived with her husband seven years after her marriage, and was a widow for 84 years. She did not leave the temple complex, serving God night and day with fasting and prayers. At that very moment, she came up and began to thank God and to speak about Him to all who were looking forward to the redemption of Jerusalem.
    The era into which Jesus was born was one of anticipation that Rome’s days were numbered. There was a breeze blowing that smelled of independence. The Apostle Paul writing a number of years after Jesus’ life, death, resurrection, and ascension noted in
    Galatians 4:4–5 NKJV
    But when the fullness of the time had come, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
    John, as a child of a priest, set apart by angelic instruction as one through whom God would speak clearly stood in the present reminding those who listened that
    a). God had not forgotten His people.
    b). God was - and always is - at work accomplishing His purposes.
    c). God is One who forgives, but He is also One who judges.
    Standing in the Future
    The yearning of God’s people for freedom was centuries in the making. Two creation stories fueled the hope which burned brightly among the people of God.
    First, the Exodus story recorded by Moses in the Law. God’s people, according to Moses
    Exodus 2:23–25 HCSB
    The Israelites groaned because of their difficult labor, and they cried out; and their cry for help ascended to God because of the difficult labor. So God heard their groaning, and He remembered His covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the Israelites, and He took notice.
    God acted. Moses was called, equipped and empowered by God to act as deliverer. God’s people tasted freedom after 400 years of slavery.
    Second, the return from Exile.
    After centuries of following God and falling away God exercised His promised judgment and drove His people out of the land of promise. After the prescribed 70 years, using a pagan king, God brought His people back to their land. Using prophets, priests, and many others God re-established His people in the land He promised to their distant forefather, Abraham. They were not ‘free’ politically or militarily except for a brief period (167 BCE - 37 BCE). That freedom ended officially when Herod was proclaimed ‘king’ by the Roman Senate in 37 BCE.
    These two creation and restoration accounts fueled a hope, a hope that God would once again act and rescue His people.
    John’s message at first glance isn’t filled with hope…
    Matthew 3:8–10 HCSB
    Therefore produce fruit consistent with repentance. And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.
    And John’s words about the one yet to come:
    Matthew 3:12 HCSB
    His winnowing shovel is in His hand, and He will clear His threshing floor and gather His wheat into the barn. But the chaff He will burn up with fire that never goes out.”
    John the Baptist announced that the present era was ending and that the future was dawning.
    Matthew 3:2 HCSB
    “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!”
    The baptism John offered in flowing water represented a break with the past - ‘produce fruit consistent with repentance;’
    and a promise for the future - ‘The One to Come “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”
    The promise of John’s baptism was that what once required you to go to the Temple was available here and now - in the present. Those who constitute the ‘real’ Israel are not simply those who perform ritual after ritual. Rather, the true Israel were those whom the One to Come would bring into the coming kingdom of God.

    REFLECT AND RESPOND

    A faith founded in the past but oriented to the future looks to the One to Come…

    A future oriented faith calls for a re-examination of our rituals:

    We have rituals. The way we greet one another when we gather - talk of the latest sporting event, the weather, the most recent aches and pains; the places we sit; the songs we sing (and the songs we wish we would sing. Earlier this morning we shared a ritual - the Lord’s Supper. Re-examining that moment:
    Did you allow the brokenness of the bread to remind you of Jesus’ broken body, given for you. Did the cup call to mind the suffering which resulted in a significant loss of blood - again shed for us?

    A future oriented faith - looking for the One to Come - calls for a redefinition of our expectations

    We long for judgment - on ‘them.’ Those who oppose us, those who don’t behave as we think they should, those who disagree with us politically. But did you hear John’s promise of judgment:
    Matthew 3:9–10 HCSB
    And don’t presume to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I tell you that God is able to raise up children for Abraham from these stones! Even now the ax is ready to strike the root of the trees! Therefore, every tree that doesn’t produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

    A future oriented faith - looking for the One to Come - calls for repentance.

    Matthew 3:2 “and saying, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!””
    Matthew 4:17 “From then on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, because the kingdom of heaven has come near!””
    Repent - stop relying on the old rituals, stop pretending that you are above God’s judgment, stop playing church. Instead -
    Set your heart and mind fully on discovering and experiencing the presence of God in your moment to moment life
    confess sin; confess Christ; gather with other believers;
    Stop trying to earn what God freely gives - His brokenness restores ours; His blood cleanses from sin; His presence set us free!

      • Luke 3:1–2HCSB

      • Luke 2:25–32HCSB

      • Luke 2:36–38HCSB

      • Galatians 4:4–5HCSB

      • Exodus 2:23–25HCSB

      • Matthew 3:8–10HCSB

      • Matthew 3:12HCSB

      • Matthew 3:2HCSB

      • Matthew 3:9–10HCSB

  • Adore

      • Psalm 72:18–19HCSB

Community Baptist Church
sschenewerk@gmail.com
5416799569
http://www.winstoncommunitybaptist.com
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